Catholic Night Hymns

[Efraine Ton]

WhileI can no longer remember who said it and in which class, I recall being taught in seminary that we learn much of our theology from hymn writers. And, at least for me, there is no greater season of the Christian year than Christmas for beautiful hymn tunes and poignant lyrics.

Many of the songs played over store speakers and radio waves during the ever-extending Christmas period of the year are not hymns. The messages that they convey range from reindeer antics to unwelcome advances on a cold winter night. Some are cute, others much too long and repetitive, and still others a cheerful reminder of the season.

One of my favorite Christmas hymns was introduced to me when I was a young adult with a 2-year-old daughter. I learned it at a church choir practice and thought it was mournfully beautiful. It is not one of the more popular Christmas hymns and at the time I appreciated its obscurity, at least to me. But more, I appreciated its simplicity in telling the story of the birth of Jesus in such a compelling way.

This season, it was one of the carols spontaneously sung at a Delta Airline counter in the Atlanta airport on Nov. 27, 2023, a nice contrast to some of the less civil encounters on one of the highest travel days of the year, the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Truly He taught us to love one another;His law is Love and His gospel is Peace;Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,And in his name all oppression shall cease,Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we;Let all within us praise his Holy name!

In 1847, the carol was premiered by a famous French opera singer, Emily Laurey, and in 1855 it was translated into English by a Unitarian Universalist pastor, John Sullivan Dwight, who felt strong parallels to the aforementioned stanza and the on-going civil unrest in the United States over slavery.

Placide Cappeau, the lyricist was allegedly an atheist, and Adolphe Adams, the composer, was believed to be Jewish, which poised a problem for church officials who discovered these connections years after the carol had gained popularity in France.

For me, the lyrics being written by someone who was atheist or disinterested in the church broadens the reach of the hymn and the scope of its message. Focusing on humanity more than divinity is at the very heart of the Incarnation, which is a humbling experience.

If the music was written by a Jewish person, what an honor for the birth of the Jewish Jesus to be captured in the powerful melody of a hymn that inspires such devotion and praise. And if the translation into English by a Unitarian Universalist minister resulted in an abolitionist anthem that influenced the freedom of slaves during the Civil War, I am grateful.

One of the all-time classic assembly hymns, this was actually a really long-winded way of making a fairly simple point: that while we're not medieval knights, we still take part in some sort of 'fight' against the bad things in our world. There's no real religious content until the third verse, which makes sense of the fantasy lyrics of the first two, and which somewhat hilariously on reflection, my school used to skip. Scores points for being the only hymn ever to include the word "ogre".

Like the ballad of the spur-winning knight, this is a song which relies on a strong appreciation of metaphor. It's about asking God to keep your lamp oily, and if I'm honest, I still don't know what that means. The hymn was perhaps most memorable for being impossible to fully learn; the lyrics changed on the last line of the chorus from 'king of kings' to just 'king', and so at some point everyone made the humiliating mistake of singing on when everyone else had stopped. Charmingly, this hymn was also rebranded as an offensive football chant in the 1980s.

If you went to school on Monday morning feeling full of the joys of the weekend, you could guarantee this one would bring you back down to earth with a bump. It invited pupils to re-imagine the world as a sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland, where nothing would grow, the animals and fish were all dead, and no-one could survive. Then you'd thank God that this wasn't actually the world we live in, but the damage was done. The stuff of nightmares, and very possibly the original inspiration for Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

I mean let's be honest: what was this all about? Apparently the main thrust is a call to God to "come by here" and help those in need; semi-interestingly there's some debate about the linguistic origin of the song (it might be Angolan). There are many different versions of this campfire classic, recorded by bands in the 50s, 60s and 70s with names like The Woodturners and the Pan Pipe Men. In all honesty I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who likes the song, but that didn't stop Mr Finch from inflicting it on us on a weekly basis.

Well this is a proper one. The school hymn that sent Michael Flatley on his way to being a superstar, it gave us the entire gospel narrative, wrapped up in a folksy tune with some folksy imagery about life as a dance. Now that I understand the sufferings of Christ more clearly than I did aged seven, I feel a little bit guilty for how much we enjoyed singing "they whipped and they stripped and they hung me on high", but nevertheless this arguably remains the crown prince of school assembly songs.

This one is a departure from all the awkward metaphor, presenting as it does a full on evangelical rallying call to "go down to the city, into the street, and let's give the message to the people we meet." Overall it's a pretty good and theologically-correct hymn, although it does worryingly suggest that "the people of darkness are needing a friend." Whether that's rather judgmentally rebranding non-Christians, or suggesting primary school-aged children should go and befriend a serious criminal is unclear; either way it seems unwise.

They'd never get away with this one now. A full on creationist treatise about God making not only the rainbow, the sea and the snowflake, but also whales, snails, quails, hogs, dogs and frogs, this was always the one that would send an excited cry of "yessssss" rippling around the school hall when it appeared on the overhead projector. Innovative because it is almost entirely composed of questions, and because it dares to rhyme "seas" with "leaves". My favourite.

That's it for the moment. There's almost certainly more mileage here, but for now, I trust I've successfully ear-wormed your day with at least one nonsensical folk anthem that's light on theology but big on nostalgia.

Silent Night is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. A broken church organ in the midst of a Christmas Eve midnight service presented an opportunity for God to show his creativity. Father Joseph created the lyrics on the spot, brought the text to Franz Gruber to create a simple tune. Thus, Silent Night was sung for the first time. After its publication in 1838, this song has been recorded by a large number of singers from every music genre.

We Three Kings, also known as We Three Kings of Orient Are or The Quest of the Magi, is a Christmas carol that was written by John Henry Hopkins, Jr., in 1857. At the time of composing the carol, Hopkins served as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and he wrote the carol for a Christmas pageant in New York City. Many versions of this song have been composed, but it remains the most popular and most frequently sung Christmas carol today.

Special Mention: Henry Sloane Coffin (1916)

O come, O come, Emmanuel is a Christian hymn for Advent. While it is most commonly known by that English title, it is in fact a translation of the original Latin, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel; translations into other modern languages (particularly German) are also in widespread use. The 1861 translation of Hymns Ancient and Modern is the most prominent by far in the English-speaking world, but other English translations also exist. The hymn is a metrical paraphrase of the O Antiphons, a series of plainchant antiphons attached to the Magnificat at Vespers over the final days before Christmas.

What Child Is This? is a Christmas carol whose lyrics were written by William Chatterton Dix in 1865. At the time of composing the carol, Dix worked as an insurance company manager and had been struck by a severe illness. While recovering, he underwent a spiritual renewal that led him to write several hymns, including lyrics to this carol that was subsequently set to the tune of Greensleeves, a traditional English folk song. Although it was written in England, the carol is more popular in the United States than in its country of origin today.

Special Mention: Frederick Oakeley (1845)

O Come, All Ye Faithful (originally written in Latin as Adeste Fideles) is a Christmas carol which has been attributed to various authors. In 1743, John Francis Wade had produced a copy of the now popular O Come, All Ye Faithful. After his passing in 1786, English Catholics began returning to Britain, bringing the carol with them. Frederick Oakeley eventually came across this carol and was so moved that he decided to translate it into English for Margaret Street Chapel. After converting to Catholicism in 1845, Oakeley revised the original Ye Faithful, Approach Ye to the now famous O Come, All Ye Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant.

Away in a Manger is a Christmas carol first published in the late nineteenth century and used widely throughout the English-speaking world. In 1887, Away in a Manger appeared in a little book of songs entitled Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses, published in Cincinnati by the John Church Company. The mystery of this song gives credit to the great reformer Martin Luther, noting him as the composer of the song. Further research found this mystery to be false, but it still leaves no original composer to be named. In Britain, it is one of the most popular carols; a 1996 Gallup Poll ranked it joint second. The two most-common musical settings are by William J. Kirkpatrick (1895) and James R. Murray (1887).

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